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The Zambian government has called on cooperating partners to continue supporting the Riparian countries through mobilisation of resources to protect and conserve Lake Tanganyika.
The Riparian countries include Zambia, Burundi, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to
Zambia’s Minister of Green Economy and Environment Mike Mposha.
Mposha, who is Chairperson of the Lake Tanganyika Authority Conference of Ministers, was speaking on Thursday during the official opening of the 12th Ordinary Meeting of the Lake Tanganyika Conference of Ministers held at Rotana Hotel in Kinshasa, DRC.
The Minister said Zambia, including other three riparian countries, were confronted by enormous challenges such as the devastating impacts of the flooding occasioned due to rising water levels in the Lake Tanganyika.
“The dramatic rise in the water levels of Lake Tanganyika has caused extensive damage to infrastructure as well as disruption of livelihoods and loss of life of the riparian communities and the biodiversity of the lake basin,” Mposha said in a statement issued in Lusaka on Friday.
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He also expressed concern that the loss, degradation and fragmentation of ecosystems and habitats for biodiversity in the four riparian countries has continued at alarming rates.
Mposha stated that the people living in communities around Lake Tanganyika were eagerly looking forward to a favourable conference outcome that would help them to safeguard their livelihoods, prevent loss of life and further environmental degradation and positively contribute poverty reduction and socio-economic development in our respective countries.
“My plea to all member states is that Lake Tanganyika, which holds almost a sixth of the world’s available fresh water and is home to more than 2,000 species of plants and animals, must be safeguarded at all costs. this is crucial for both the present and future generations, as the lake also has over 500 endemic species vital to its ecosystem,” he said
Officially opening the 12th Ordinary Meeting of the Lake Tanganyika Conference of Ministers, DRC Prime Minister, Judith Suminwa Tuluka, reassured the Member States of her country’s commitment to the preservation of Lake Tanganyika.
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